Avantor® and BlueWhale Bio Partner to Accelerate CAR-T Manufacturing with Breakthrough Cell Activation and Expansion Technology

RADNOR, Pa. and PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Avantor, Inc. (NYSE: AVTR), a leading global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the life sciences and advanced technologies industries, today announced a strategic partnership with BlueWhale Bio, a commercial-stage company dedicated to transforming immune cell therapy manufacturing and addressing the unmet need in CAR-T production by streamlining manufacturing, reducing variability, and shortening time-to-patient.

The partnership combines Avantor's bioprocessing and custom ancillary-reagent manufacturing capabilities with BlueWhale Bio's Synecta™ cell-derived nanoparticle (CDNP) platform, which mimics natural T-cell stimulation. The collaboration aims to accelerate CDNP manufacturing scale-up to help CAR-T developers significantly reduce expansion time - potentially expanding patient access and manufacturing capacity across the growing cell therapy sector. Together, the teams will produce GMP-grade CDNP materials to support this next-generation manufacturing approach.

"Our partnership with BlueWhale Bio reflects Avantor's commitment to delivering highly relevant manufacturing solutions to customers and enabling next-generation therapies through innovation, reliability, and scale," said Emmanuel Ligner, President and Chief Executive Officer of Avantor. "CAR-T therapies have transformed cancer care, but manufacturing remains a major bottleneck characterized by high cost, variability, and lengthy release cycles. The Avantor–BlueWhale Bio collaboration addresses these challenges by integrating next-generation activation and expansion reagents into a GMP-ready, scalable platform."

Data from BlueWhale Bio's preclinical and clinical programs demonstrate earlier cell division, higher cell yields, and fewer process interventions, indicating potential to reduce CAR-T process time and reduce cell stress during manufacturing. Synecta™ T1 CDNPs are used in a clinical trial using 3-day CAR-T manufacturing.

"BlueWhale Bio was founded to address the toughest manufacturing challenges in cell therapy. Failure to meet target dose levels in immune cell therapies can have a critical downstream impact on patients," said Peter Keller, Chief Executive Officer of BlueWhale Bio. "By partnering with Avantor, we're combining our novel Synecta™ platform with industrial-strength execution to accelerate the journey from discovery to delivery."

About Avantor
Avantor^® is a leading life science tools company and global provider of mission-critical products and services to the life sciences and advanced technology industries. We work side-by-side with customers at every step of the scientific journey to enable breakthroughs in medicine, healthcare, and technology. Our portfolio is used in virtually every stage of the most important research, development and production activities at more than 300,000 customer locations in 180 countries. For more information, visit avantorsciences.com and find us on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Facebook.

About BlueWhale Bio
BlueWhale Bio is dedicated to accelerating the growth and adoption of cell-based therapies by transforming the manufacturing process of immune cell therapy. The company is developing a portfolio of critical materials that bring the full benefits of higher-performing cell therapies to more patients faster and at lower costs. Its first product, Synecta™ T1, is used in a phase 1 clinical trial for a 3-day manufacturing process of an armored CAR-T. BlueWhale's innovations are based on cutting-edge discoveries in cell activation led by Dr. Carl June and Dr. Jim Riley at the University of Pennsylvania. Synecta™ CDNPs are commercially available at www.bluewhale.bio Follow us on LinkedIn.

Avantor Media Contact
Eric Van Zanten
Head of External Communications
Avantor
610-529-6219
[email protected] 

Avantor Investor Relations Contact
Allison Hosak
Senior Vice President, Global Communications
Avantor
908-329-7281
[email protected]

BlueWhale Bio Media Contact
Cammy Duong
[email protected]

SOURCE Avantor and Financial News